Yesterday, something odd happened...the 2013 Nexus 7 LTE got an OTA before its Wi-Fi counterpart. Thankfully, it appears that it was only a day early, as Google is now rolling out its latest Android build to the Wi-Fi only variant as well.

The OTA is build LMY47O, just like the LTE model, and weighs in at roughly 170 MB. If the update isn't available for you, fret not. We've got you covered. See below for a link to download the OTA file for manual sideloading.

There have always been delays on nVidia-based Nexus devices. The Motorola Xoom (which was a Nexus in all but name, and used a Tegra 2 SoC) had its Jelly Bean update for the Verizon cellular model delayed for over a year, and there were some rumblings that it was all on nVidia with radio drivers. The Nexus 7 2012 3G (which had a Tegra 3) had its original Lollipop update delayed significantly and again, rumblings were about nVidia being the cause due to radio drivers. Now with the N9, who knows. Obviously whatever it is must be affecting both the Wi-Fi and LTE variants.

Simon Belmont

The Jelly Bean update on the Xoom was also probably delayed because the Tegra 2 sucked, and Jelly Bean was starting to require NEON instructions (which is why the Xoom stopped getting updates at 4.1 officially) because the Tegra 2 didn't have NEON. -_-

I agree with your N7 2012 3G assessment. It was probably radio drivers. :D

I'd accept the NEON argument if it also affected Wi-Fi, but it didn't. The Xoom Wi-Fi got updates the same time every other device did. It was only the LTE model, oddly enough. But regardless, the common denominator in all the cases is nVidia. haha

Simon Belmont

Very true. Good point about the LTE model.

I'm just mad at nVidia for not including NEON instructions in the Tegra 2 (even the OMAP3 in an OG Droid had NEON) and making the memory single channel in it and the Tegra 3. Blargh.

x8123999

nVidia. Almost certainly. I remember waiting for ever for updates to my old TF101.

You would think it would be faster and simpler to do the update for the wifi models than the cellular counterparts, less radios to deal with.

I was surprised on how well my buddies 2013 N7 ran on 5.0.2 It was much better then my LGGP83GPE did on 5.0

jj14x

You know how on the OTA roundup post, AP editors usually add the Galaxy Nexus at the bottom with the "lolno" adjacent to that? At this rate, I wouldn't be surprised if they replace the Galaxy Nexus with the Nexus 9 on that post :)

The Nexus 9 delay most likely has to do with Google and HTC waiting on something from nVidia or one of the other OEMs of one of the components in the device. OTA updates involve a lot more than just Google and HTC.

Frank Durocher

Possibly... but I wouldn't blame nVidia. The N7 (2012) has a Tegra3 in it and it was one of the first to get 5.1.

Jeffrey Spiers

Sadly my two stock 2012 N7's are lag beasts even with the 5.1 update. 5.0 was absolutely horrible on performance due to the memory leaks and such but 5.1 didn't fix much on the aging hardware.

Frank Durocher

Exactly where I was at. They just don't seem to be able to handle so many things well anymore. I sold both of mine (a 32GB and an 8GB) and bought a 32GB 2013 model. There's still a use for them out there somewhere, like a cheap kid's tablet - just not for me anymore.

FWIW I got $50 for the 8GB and $95 for the 32GB.

Fatal1ty_93_RUS

This time it can be htc
They slacked big time on Lollipop updates "within 90 days of sources release" for their flagships

Wouldn't be surprised if now they are slacking on getting the nexus 9 up to date.

jj14x

That may very well be the reason for the delay, but it is not setting a good image for the Nexus program in general. I didn't buy the N9, but if I had, I wouldn't be very happy with this. If I wanted to deal with delays because of OEMs of components, I'd have bought a non-Nexus device - I know what excuses/reasons to expect. With the Nexus devices, this is ... unexpected :)

I received Android 5.1 OTA to my 2013 Nexus Wi-Fi last night and successfully installed it. It comes a week after Google posts it just like 5.0.1 and 5.0.2 did. I'm guessing because I'm on the east coast.